A Crooked Road

Gay Rumors Drove Teen to Suicide

By Advocate.com Editors

A U.K. high school student jumped to his death off a six-story building last year after classmates spread a rumor that he had kissed a boy during a game of “spin the bottle” on a school trip, an inquest heard earlier this week.
 
Fifteen-year-old Dominic Crouch was reportedly happy when he returned from an art class trip with his classmates at St. Edwards School in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, in May of last year, the inquest heard, according to Metro.co.uk.

But four days later. Crouch gained access to the roof at a locked block of apartments nearby called Withyholt Court and jumped.

Paul Harvey, the school's current headmaster, told the inquest a supervisor on the trip, Lucy Evans, reported after his death that classmates had been playing “spin the bottle” on the trip and rumors had been spread that Crouch had kissed a boy, leading to rumors he was gay.

“Dominic was clearly upset about rumours that he believed were being spread about him,” Dominic’s father Roger Crouch told the inquest. “We need to realize that what may be a laugh to some young people are deeply upsetting to another.”

Gloucestershire's deputy coroner David Dooley has ruled the death a suicide.